The (0-0) Miami Heat’s [-8] quest for a title continues with game 1 of the 2012 NBA playoff series predictions’ Eastern Conference semifinals against the (0-0) Indiana Pacers [+8]. Inspired by LeBron James third Most Valuable Player Award announcement, Miami will try and get off on the right foot in today’s series opener.

"His goal is to be the best player at the end of the season," said Dwyane Wade about LBJ winning the MVP award. "But if he can pick up a little history along the way, I don’t think he’s mad about that at all."

This game’s opening tipoff is scheduled to get underway today at 3:30 PM ET live on ABC. According to 2012 NBA playoff series predictions experts, the Indiana Pacers and the Miami Heat are projected to combine and score an OVER/UNDER total of 187.5 points.

For the Pacers, they are coming off a 4-1 series victory over the Dwight Howard-less Orlando Magic in the first round. After dropping the opener 77-81, Indiana got a wake up call, closing out the series in straight games from that point forward.

Now, the Pacers will be taking on the betting odds favorites to win the 2012 NBA championship this year, and it’ll all start today in South Florida. In spite of the fact that a single points has yet to be scored in this series, there’s already plenty of drama and emotions involved.

This week, Pacers coach Frank Vogel was fined $15,000 for "comments about how the referees should officiate the Pacers’ upcoming series with the Heat," said the NBA in a statement. Vogel called the Heat the biggest floppers in the league.

"It’ll be very interesting to see how the referees officiate the series and how much flopping they reward," were some of the comments that led to Vogel’s monetary fine. "Every drive to the basket they have guys not making a play on the ball. But sliding in front of drivers. Often times they’re falling down even before contact is even being made. It’ll be interesting to see how the series is officiated."

For the Heat, I’m sure those comments will be somewhere in their minds when they take the court today against Indy in this 2012 NBA playoff series predictions. Especially considering the Pacers defeated Miami in their last meeting, the Heat understand that this will be a much more physical and hard fought series than the last. Head coach Eric Spoelstra spoke about the evolution of a young, scrappy Pacers team.

"They’re a much different team in the last six weeks," he said. "We feel we are, too. Watching some of our film from those last two games (against Indiana), it’s not really recognizable. Our energy level at that period of time, but also how we were playing offensively – there’s a lot of different things from our standpoint."

OSH NBA playoff series predictions: Considering the Pacers vs Heat NBA Playoff odds, there’s no way I see the Pacers beating Miami in this series. In fact, if the Heat go on to win the NBA title this year, it would have been done by beating some of the worse teams in NBA history. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: the only remaining team that could potentially push Miami to six games is the Boston Celtics. And even then, I believe Beantown would likely lose that series. In the meantime, I like Miami [-8] over the Pacers in game 1.